Techmeme the artist formerly known as tech.memeorandum, which become the blog aggregator of choice for myself and many others, is starting to monetize itself. True to form, Gabe Rivera the owner isn’t just slapping Google Adsense or banner ads, he’s integrating content from the advertisers in the sidebar to make Techmeme more useful to readers, check out the screenshot above right.

Others are writing
Cynthia from IP Democracy shares the ad details: “These slots don’t come all that cheaply, either, but that’s the way it should be. Gabe is selling the first, second, and third slots for $4,500, $3,500, and $3,000 per month respectively.”
Techblog: “This is a brilliant move on the part of Techmeme creator Gabe Rivera, as it opens the door to an entirely different kind of advertising model. Companies have the ability to provide a much deeper level of information using sponsored posts, and get immediate feedback. Blog-savvy businesses should be falling all over themselves to get into this space.”
Not even fellow Web pooh point oh squasher Squash will bash the idea: “I like the way Gabe has kept the integrity of the site, by linking to blog posts rather than to corporate websites or other such commsspeak.”
Podtech owner John Furrier sees other ways Gabe could monetize Techmeme, and while he doesn’t share any of them publically (tease alert!), he opines: “It will be a matter of time before someone develops something similar so Techmeme needs to keep thinking of new ways to create a better user experience.”
Nik likes it: “I think the solution that you see now is both very elegant and effective. It is non-intrusive for the reader and brings a good audience and credibility to the sponsor.”
Jeff Jarvis gives it the nod too: “I talked with Gabe about this at a conference months ago; he has put a lot of careful thought into the idea. I like it. It’s relevant; it’s human and not automated; it’s appropriate to the form. And it pays.”
TechCrunch labels this an invention: “Tonight Gabe Rivera, the founder of TechMeme, just invented something else - advertisements delivered via RSS. NOT advertisements embedded withing RSS feeds, but actually using RSS as the delivery mechanism.”
Mark Evans asks some good questions: “So how many corporate blogs fall into this category? Does this limit the number of potential TechMeme sponsors? Another issue is how much these sponsorships cost and their ROI. How many technology companies with high-quality blogs are willing to advertise on TechMeme.”
And what does one of the advertisers, Wink, who desperately needs to change their default Wordpress theme (at least change the colors, folks), say? “Wink and Techmeme work well together. Use Techmeme to find the latest technews and buzz, then use Wink to rate, save, and search the sites you find interesting.”

Techmeme is ripe for acquisition
I’m sure somebody out there will hate this idea, and Jeneane comes close to dissing it with: “… seems to me that the kind of sponsors ought to be paying to post on techmeme at $3K - $5K a month are sites that have ‘getting a life’ or ‘living life as a normal person’ as their central theme, not more web 2.0 sites, like Socialtext, ODesk and Wink, which are likely to end up on techmeme one way or the other for free.”

Still, I didn’t find any strong anti techmeme monetizing posts during the writing and compilation fo this post which is a positive sign for Gabe. It shouldn’t surprise any regular Hmm readers that I’m fond of this type advertising approach which is very reader and advertiser friendly.

My respect for Gabe continues to grow; this guy really, really gets it. While million dollar deals continue to happen all around, somehow Techmeme hasn’t been snatched up yet. Techmeme would be a good acquisition for Microsoft’s Live blog aggregator, I wonder if they’ve talked to Gabe? Yahoo is busy trying to woo Facebook while a jewel is shining in their backyard. Google? Techmeme would be an attractive addition to Google’s blog reader.

There’s always a wildcard like eBay that could buy Techmeme. Imagine Skype integration with Techmeme? So many possibilities.

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